Staff Technical Program Manager, Platform

Technical Program Manager · Staff · Full Time

San Francisco, CaliforniaUSD 200k – 240k2mo ago
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Role

What you'll do.

Join Sentry as a Staff Technical Program Manager for the Platform organization, a critical engine spanning developer platform, infrastructure, SRE, and security. This high-visibility role operates at the intersection of technical depth and strategic execution, requiring someone who can transform ambiguity into clarity while building trust with senior engineering leaders and the CTO. You'll establish metrics-driven delivery health, manage complex cross-functional dependencies, and shape how Sentry's platform organization scales through a pivotal growth phase.

Responsibilities

  • Drive Strategic Execution: Partner with the VP of Platform Engineering and senior Engineering, Product, and Design (EPD) leaders to translate organizational priorities into clear, measurable execution plans. Own sequencing decisions, milestone definition, and key trade-off analysis. Maintain reliable visibility into progress, dependencies, and strategic outcomes for senior leadership and the CTO.
  • Establish Delivery Health Metrics & Dashboards: Design and implement data-driven metrics systems that reflect delivery confidence, risk posture, and engineering health across the Platform organization. Build high-signal, lightweight reporting artifacts that focus on outcomes rather than activity metrics, enabling informed decision-making at scale.
  • Manage Capacity & Dependencies: Create organizational visibility into resource allocation, cross-team dependencies, constraints, and bottlenecks. Work with engineering leadership to align investment toward highest-impact priorities, surface emerging risks early, and manage competing priorities through structured tradeoff analysis.
  • Build Operating Cadence & Processes: Establish structured operational rhythms and process frameworks across the Platform organization that scale with the company. Create incident management and on-call frameworks that teams adopt sustainably, and define how platform and infrastructure engineering teams operate across SRE, security, and developer platform domains.
  • Enable Cross-Functional Alignment: Facilitate collaboration across Platform, Engineering, Product, and Design functions in a matrixed organization. Translate between technical, product, and business perspectives, ensuring clear communication and shared understanding of objectives across all stakeholders and organizational levels.
  • Drive Risk & Reliability Programs: Develop and oversee operational reliability programs, incident management processes, and on-call protocols that ensure platform stability. Monitor and reduce deployment and operational risk through proactive identification, assessment, and mitigation of technical and organizational bottlenecks.

Qualifications

What we look for.

Technical

  • Technical Program Management in Complex Distributed Systems

    Deep experience managing technical programs at scale within platform, infrastructure, SRE, or security engineering organizations. Demonstrated ability to understand and communicate complex technical constraints, architectural decisions, and engineering tradeoffs that impact delivery.

  • Cross-Functional Program Leadership

    Proven track record leading complex, multi-workstream programs spanning engineering, product, and business functions in highly matrixed organizations with competing priorities and ambiguous outcomes.

  • Metrics & Data-Driven Decision Making

    Strong analytical capability to design delivery health metrics, build operational dashboards, and use quantitative data to drive strategic and tactical decisions. Experience transforming raw data into actionable insights for engineering and executive audiences.

  • Incident Management & Reliability Program Design

    Experience designing, implementing, or significantly improving incident management frameworks, on-call rotation processes, operational reliability programs, or SRE best practices. Understanding of how processes scale and sustain in growing organizations.

  • Process Design & Operating System Execution

    Demonstrated ability to build organizational structure and operating cadence in environments lacking established processes. Proven success creating processes and rhythms that teams naturally adopt, sustain, and continuously improve.

Education

  • Bachelor's Degree or Equivalent Professional Experience

    Four-year degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Business, or related field, or equivalent professional experience demonstrating the technical program management competencies and domain knowledge required for the role.

Experience

  • 8+ Years Technical Program Management

    Minimum eight years of Technical Program Management experience at high-growth technology companies. Direct exposure to platform, infrastructure, SRE, or security engineering organizations managing complex technical initiatives and cross-functional coordination.

  • Senior Leadership Engagement

    Experience working directly with VPs, CTOs, and senior engineering leaders. Demonstrated ability to build credibility with technical senior engineers, earn trust through execution, and influence strategic decisions with technical leaders and executives.

  • Matrixed Organization Experience

    Multiple examples of successfully navigating and managing programs across matrixed organizations where authority is distributed and alignment must be built through influence and clear communication rather than direct authority.

  • Operational Excellence & Reliability Focus

    Background in defining or meaningfully improving incident management, on-call processes, or operational reliability programs. Understanding of how platform engineering, infrastructure, and SRE functions contribute to company success and competitive advantage.

Skills

Required

  • Strategic Program Planning & Execution

    Ability to translate ambiguous priorities into structured, phased execution plans with clear milestones, sequencing, and decision frameworks. Proven success delivering complex, multi-quarter programs on schedule.

  • Data & Metrics Analysis

    Strong analytical foundation to design meaningful KPIs, build operational dashboards, and use quantitative insights to drive decisions. Comfort translating metrics into narratives that resonate with both technical and executive audiences.

  • Cross-Functional Leadership & Influence

    Ability to lead without direct authority in matrixed environments. Strong facilitation skills for aligning diverse stakeholders around shared objectives, managing competing priorities, and building consensus through influence.

  • Technical Communication & Writing

    Exceptional ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly. Proven skill producing high-signal reporting artifacts, technical documentation, and executive summaries. Fluency moving between deep technical conversations and executive-level discourse.

  • Organizational Design & Process Architecture

    Experience building sustainable processes, operating rhythms, and governance structures. Ability to design systems that teams adopt organically and improve over time rather than top-down processes that require constant reinforcement.

  • Risk & Dependency Management

    Proactive ability to identify, surface, and mitigate technical and organizational risks. Experience managing cross-team dependencies, capacity constraints, and tradeoff decisions in resource-constrained environments.

  • Platform & Infrastructure Domain Knowledge

    Genuine understanding of platform engineering, infrastructure, SRE, and security as competitive advantages. Appreciation for why reliability, scalability, and security tradeoffs are strategic, not just operational concerns.

  • Curiosity & Rapid Learning

    Growth mindset with ability to quickly understand new technical domains and organizational contexts. Comfort operating in ambiguity while building clarity through structured inquiry and iterative learning.

Preferred

  • Application Monitoring or Developer Platform Experience

    Nice to have

    Experience in application monitoring, observability, developer tools, or developer platform organizations. Understanding of how monitoring solutions impact engineering velocity and product reliability.

  • High-Growth SaaS Company Background

    Nice to have

    Experience scaling technical program management practices as companies grow through critical inflection points. Familiarity with managing program execution during rapid organizational growth and changing priorities.

  • Open Source or Developer Community Engagement

    Nice to have

    Experience working with open-source projects, developer communities, or building products for engineering teams. Understanding of how these audiences think and what resonates with engineering-focused customers and users.

  • Incident Response & Post-Incident Learning

    Nice to have

    Experience designing blameless postmortem processes, incident response playbooks, or on-call training programs. Understanding of how to build organizational learning culture around operational events.

  • Observability & Reliability Engineering

    Nice to have

    Hands-on exposure to observability tools, monitoring systems, or SRE practices. Familiarity with metrics, logging, tracing, and how these contribute to platform stability and operational excellence.

  • Agile at Scale Frameworks

    Nice to have

    Experience with scaled agile frameworks, program planning methodologies, or portfolio management approaches used in large technical organizations. Knowledge of OKRs, SAFe, Shape Up, or similar frameworks.

Tech stack

Tools

Project Management & Planning ToolsData Visualization & Analytics PlatformsIncident Management & Monitoring SystemsDocumentation & Communication PlatformsObservability & Application Monitoring

Other

Operating System Design for Technical OrganizationsPlatform & Infrastructure Engineering DomainMetrics & OKR FrameworksIncident Management & Blameless PostmortemsStakeholder Management & Executive Communication

Compensation

Pay and benefits.

Base·USD 200,000 – 240,000

Equity·Stock options

Benefits

  • Equity Grants

    Participation in Sentry's equity grant program, providing ownership stake and long-term incentive compensation aligned with company performance.

  • Paid Time Off

    Comprehensive paid time off policy enabling work-life balance and rest. Details available in Sentry's benefits documentation.

  • Group Health Insurance

    Comprehensive health insurance coverage including medical, dental, and vision benefits for employee and eligible dependents.

  • Incentive Compensation

    Variable incentive compensation structure tied to individual and company performance metrics, providing opportunity for additional earnings beyond base salary.

  • Developer-Friendly Culture

    Work within a company that prioritizes engineering excellence, open-source contributions, and making software development more accessible globally.

  • Career Growth in High-Impact Role

    Opportunity to shape how Sentry's platform organization scales, with direct access to CTO and senior leadership. High visibility, real influence on company trajectory during critical growth phase.

Process

Interview steps.

  1. 01

    Initial Screening Call

    Preliminary conversation with Sentry recruiter to discuss background, experience with technical program management, and interest in the Platform organization. Typical duration: 30 minutes.

  2. 02

    Technical Program Management Deep Dive

    Conversation with Head of Technical Program Management covering program planning methodology, metrics design, how you've handled complex cross-functional coordination, and specific examples of managing platform or infrastructure programs. Expect discussion of concrete past examples and decision-making frameworks.

  3. 03

    VP of Platform Engineering Alignment

    Meeting with VP of Platform Engineering to discuss platform strategy, technical challenges facing the organization, how you would approach priority sequencing, and your understanding of platform and infrastructure engineering domains. This conversation assesses strategic thinking and ability to partner with senior engineering leadership.

  4. 04

    Cross-Functional Stakeholder Panel

    Conversation with representatives from engineering, product, design, and SRE functions to evaluate cross-functional leadership, communication style, and ability to influence without direct authority. May include discussion of specific cross-team dependency or conflict scenarios.

  5. 05

    CTO / Executive Leadership Conversation

    Final round conversation with CTO or senior executive to discuss strategic vision for the platform organization, your approach to building operating clarity at scale, and how you think about the role of platform engineering in company competitiveness.

Full posting

Original listing.

About Sentry

Software runs the world and the pace is faster than ever. Sentry helps developers fix errors and performance issues before users notice, so teams can spend less time firefighting and more time building.

Trusted by 200,000+ organizations, Sentry is today’s application monitoring standard and our team is building its AI-native future.

About the role

The Platform org at Sentry is the engine that everything else runs on, spanning developer platform, core infrastructure underpinning the product, SRE, security, and IT. It's a broad, technically complex, and deeply consequential organization.

We're looking for a Staff Technical Program Manager who can operate at the intersection of technical depth and strategic execution: someone who thrives in complexity, builds trust with senior engineering leaders, and has a gift for turning ambiguity into clarity and momentum. You'll report to the Head of Technical Program Management and work closely with the VP of Platform Engineering, their staff, and partner teams across Engineering, Product, and Design (EPD).

This is a high-visibility role with real influence. You'll work directly with the CTO and senior leaders, shape how the Platform org operates, and help Sentry scale through one of its most important chapters.

In this role, you will:

  • Drive strategic execution. Partner with the VP of Platform Engineering and senior EPD leaders to translate priorities into clear, measurable plans. Own sequencing, milestones, and key decisions, and make sure leadership always has reliable visibility into progress and tradeoffs.

  • Build data-driven delivery health. Establish the metrics and dashboards that reflect delivery confidence, risk, and engineering health across the Platform org. Keep planning and reporting high-signal and lightweight, focused on outcomes rather than activity.

  • Manage capacity, dependencies, and risk. Create visibility into resourcing, cross-team dependencies, and constraints so leaders can align investment to the highest-impact priorities. Surface risks early, drive tradeoffs when priorities compete, and keep complex initiatives on track.

You'll love this role if you:

  • Get energized by technically complex, cross-functional work and find deep satisfaction in making execution smoother and more predictable at scale

  • Have a strong point of view and aren't afraid to bring it to a room full of senior engineers and leaders

  • Love turning ambiguity into operating clarity: strong rhythms, sharp plans, measurable outcomes

  • Have a genuine appreciation for platform and infrastructure challenges — you understand why reliability, scalability, and security aren't just operational concerns, they're strategic ones

Qualifications

  • 8+ years of Technical Program Management experience at a high-growth technology company, with direct exposure to platform, infrastructure, SRE, or security engineering organizations

  • Proven ability to lead complex, cross-functional programs spanning engineering, product, and business functions in a matrixed organization

  • Experience defining or improving incident management, on-call processes, or operational reliability programs

  • Strong analytical instincts: you build systems to track delivery health and use data to drive decisions

  • Demonstrated ability to build structure and operating cadence in environments where neither existed, creating processes that teams adopt and sustain

  • Exceptional written and verbal communication skills; you can produce high-signal, low-overhead reporting artifacts for senior and executive audiences, and go deep with engineers with equal confidence


The base salary range (or hourly wage range, if applicable) that Sentry reasonably expects to pay for this position is $200,000 to $240,000. A successful candidate’s actual base salary (or hourly wage) amount will be determined by a variety of relevant factors including, without limitation, the candidate’s work location, education, work and other relevant experience, skills, and job-related knowledge. A successful candidate will be eligible to participate in Sentry’s employee benefit plans/programs applicable to the candidate’s position (including incentive compensation, equity grants, paid time off, and group health insurance coverage). See Sentry Benefits for more details about the Company’s benefit plans/programs.

Equal Opportunity at Sentry

Sentry is committed to providing equal employment opportunities to its employees and candidates for employment regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity, veteran status, or other legally-protected characteristic. This commitment includes the provision of reasonable accommodations to employees and candidates for employment with physical or mental disabilities who require such accommodations in order to (a) perform the essential functions of their jobs, or (b) seek employment with Sentry. We strive to build a diverse team, with an inclusive culture where every teammate can thrive. Sentry is an open-source company because we believe that everyone, everywhere, should have the ability and tools to make great software. Software should be accessible. That starts with making our industry accessible.

If you need assistance or an accommodation due to a disability, you may contact us at [email protected].

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